Filler gun



Jan. 18, 1949. w. E. SMITH 2,459,296

FILLER GUN Filed Aug. 25, 1945 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Figtl.

Jan. 18, 1949. w. E. SMITH 2,459,296

FILLER GUN Filed Aug. 25, 1,945 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 FITiZZLsE Patented Jan. 18, 1 949 UNITED STATES FATENT orrlcs FILLER GUN Willis E. Smith, Springfield, Oreg.

Application August 25, 1945, Serial No. 612,649

1 Claim. 1

The object of my invention is to provide a device by which plastic may be applied in limited amounts to a surface or edge of a member, and by the use of the same instrument may be trowelled, that is, made to conform to the surface. My invention is specially directed to an instrument for patching plywood, particularly the edges thereof, so as to fill in any holes or imperfections and to smooth said patching material to conform to the surface being patched.

It is old in the art to apply a quick-hardening plastic material which resembles wood to a surface to fill in holes. A quantity may be applied to a hole and a spatula or similar instrument must be used for forcing the material into the hole, smoothing it and removing the excess. I have discovered that an instrument ma be provided for holding a quantit of such material airtight and under control so that limited amounts may be applied through a hollow applicator and said applicator may be formed to constitute a trowelling surface.

The details of my invention and the method of operation thereof are hereinafter described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: 1

Fig. l is a perspective view of an instrument embodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view of said instrument;

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary, detailed View of the tip of the applicator taken on the line 3-3 in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is an elevation of a modified type of applicator with portions shown broken away to show details of construction thereof;

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view taken through the tip of said modification, said section being taken on a line 5-5 in Fig. 4; and

Fig. 6 is a sectional view of said modified type of applicator taken on a line 56 in Fig. 4.

A device embodying my invention comprises a handle i having a cylinder 2 secured thereto. Said cylinder may either be welded or otherwise fixed to the handle or may be releasably secured thereto. In the drawings I have illustrated how one end cap for said cylinder may be secured to the handle by welding, as at 4, and the remainder of said cylinder be releasably secured thereto. That is, said cylinder comprises a cylindrical casing 5 capped at one end by said end 3 and at the other by a removable cap 6. A bail l is swingably mounted in ears 8 forming a part of end 3. It swings over and engages a notched saddle 9, forming a part of cap 6. When said cylinder is arranged as is shown in Fig. l and Fig, 2, it holds 2 the cap 6 tightly over the casing 5 and holds the latter tightly upon the end 3. Thus the casing 5 and a cap together with the plunger It] may be removed from the appliance if desired for repair, adjustment, replacement, or for filling with plastic material.

If it is not desired to detach the casing 5, this may be prevented by welding said casing to the handle thus making only the cap and the plunger removable. Said plunger slides upon an axially disposed rod I I, one end of which is seated in cap 6 and the other end is free, carrying a collar l2 and a cotter pin I3. Said plunger is resiliently urged toward the collar by a helical coil spring It. That is, said spring bears one end against the plunger and the other against the inner surface of the movable cap 6. Said plunger preferably carries a cup leather 5 to form a liquid tight joint with the bore of the cylinder. That is, the bore of said cylindrical casing between said plunger and the inner surface of the end 3 normally is filled with a plastic which the plunger resiliently urges to express through a port [6 immediately inwardly of said end 3. Said port discharges into a chamber ll formed axially f the barrel l8. Intermediate of the ends of said barrel is a ported transverse partition is dividing said chamber into an inner end Ila and an outer end i'lb. A spring-pressed ball check valve 20 arranged in the outer end of the chamber is resiliently held across the port on the transverse partition tending to hold plastic within the inner end of said chamber.

A plunger 2! slidably engages the bore of said chamber I1 and has a path of travel equal substantially to the length of the inner end of chamber ll. It is held retracted by a coil spring 22. One end of said coil spring engages the head 2 la of said plunger and the other end engages the end 23a of the spring cavity 23. A bifurcated trigger 24 straddles the handle I and is arranged scissors-fashion therewith. The free end 25a of said trigger carries a curved link 25 which engages the free end of plunger 2!. When the edge 24b of the trigger engages the under side of bar rel l8, as is shown in Fig. 2, this limits the clockwise rotation of said trigger and thereby the outward limit of travel of plunger M. The plunger 2| may be moved to the left by gripping the trigger and the handle and squeezing them together.

This moves the plunger until its end comes into abutment with the ported transverse partition l9, and forces through said port all of the plastic in the inner end lid of chamber ll.

0n the end of the barrel I8 is a plastic applicommunicates with the outer end Nb of chamber I1. Said applicator has an elongated trowelling head 28 formed at the extremity thereof and said bore 2'7 is counterbored at 21a to provide an enlarged area for holding plastic. A top collar 26a is provided with a series of spaced radial slots 26b and a spring detent 260 is adapted to seat in one of said spaced radial slots to prevent said plastic applicator from rotating relatively in said barrel. Thus, the elongated trowelling head may be set so as to be in substantial parallelism with the general plane of the handle I, as is shown in Fig. 2. It also may be arranged at right angles thereto or may be disposed obliquely thereto merely by lifting said detent and setting it in a proper selected slot. That is,,sometimes it is.co, n, venient for an operator to arrange said trowelling head as is shown in Fig. 1 other times a more convenient angle may be with the elongated trowelling head arranged at right angles thereto or disposed obliquely therewith.

If the trowelling headis to form plastic material over a plane surface, the trowelling surface 28a is plane. Said head preferably is elongated so that its length is several times its width,

and thus such applicator may be used for applying plastic to the edge of a piece of timber, for example, or of plywood where it is closely abutted by adjacent timber, for example, or of plywood where it is closely abutted by adjacent lengths of plywood or boards.

Where it is desiredtoform a groove by the use of said trowelling head, one is provided as is shown'in Figs. 4 and 5. This is similar in every. respect to the trowelling head 28 except that said trowellinghead 29' had a trowelling surface whichis ridged. Thus, when this type of trowelling head is used, the exposed surface of plastic is formed into a groove. It would be read ily apparent to any person skilled in theart that any surface might be simulated byforming a trowelling head with a surface complementary thereto. That is, if a fillet were to be formed, said trowelling surface could be made semi-circular, or if a milled surface were to be formed, said trowelling head could be serrated longitudinally. .It is preferable, however, to provide a trowelling head with an elongated surface so that a substantial area is presented for pushing in l the plastic material and for smoothing it off.

My device operates as follows:

The cylinder 2 of said device may be filled either by removing it from the handle or by removing the cap 6, depending on its construction. The plunger and the axially. disposed rod for the plunger may be removed and the bore of the cylinder casing may be substantially filled with a quantity into said hole. The elongated trowelling head can then move back and forth over said material to smooth it and any excess will be accommodated in said counterbored portion of the trowelling head. It is to be understood that my device is adapted for use with some plastic material which dries rather quickly in air, and thus the various portions tend to prevent i f m qe tactins i -material int s wn-- cator. As is apparent ,whenthe endof the plunger 2| passes the port IE, it doesnt tend to exert any pressure on material within the'port and within the bore of the cylinder because its 'movement is at right angles to said port. Thus the pressure of the trigger exerts all of this pressure on the material in the barrel and in the applicator to force itinto any aperture with which it is alined.

The pressure of the helical coil spring M is sufliciently strong to displace any portion of the plastic retained within the cylinder-andtoexpress-it through said port 1 6. 7 When the supply of plastic materialis used up, th e--operation- -is repeated by removing the bail and-filling the cylinder with a new supply.

, With myimproved device .a workman mayquickly apply plastic to an aperture, may force itinto' said ape'rturaan'd may trowel it over to conform to the surface and a substantialsupply material. The removable cap 6 is-then seated in place and the bail l is moved so as to seat in the notched saddle 9. The compression of the helical coil spring Hi will force a portion of-said plastic material through the port IE to ,fill the inner end lid of chamber H. The trigger is then pulled several times until the outer end I'lb of said chamber and the bore of the plastic applicator 26 is filled. Then when-an aperture in -a piece of plywood is to be filled, the counterbore d portion of the bore of the applicator is alignedwith said aperture and the trigger pulled to force of plastic material may-beheld insaid-device-sd that little timev is lost between operations.

I claim: v A plastic applying device comprising, .in combination, a reservoin' a dispensin -nozzle, means for expressing plastic material from said --reservoir through 3 said dispensing nozzle, a plastic applicator nozzle pivotally attached to said -dis-- pen-sing nozzle, a notched flange extending rag diall-y from said'applicator nozzle, a pairoi spacedlu'gs extendingradially fromthe end-ofsaid dis pensing nozzle and adjacent said fiange, and

a spring fixed relative to said dispensing nog ale and having a free end extending longitudinally thereof, the free end of said spring being biased to nest between said lugs and in a selected'n otch in said flange to lock said applicator no zzl rel a tive to said dispensing noz le.

wILLIsE. six 11TH.

REFERENGES creep The following references are of 7 record in the file of this patent: 

